Two million people watch the Dutch women’s soccer team beating Sweden in the European Championships
The Netherlands started the European Women’s Football Championship with a draw on Saturday night. The reigning champion had to settle for 1-1 against Sweden in Sheffield, England. Almost two million people in the Netherlands watched the match.
Jill Roord leveled the Oranje in the opening minutes of the second half, but starting goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal and defender Aniek Nouwen were both sidelined at the time. Van Veenendaal was injured when she collided hard with defenders Stefanie van der Gragt and Lynn Wilms when the ball came towards them in the air.
The goalkeeper, who was named the world’s best goalkeeper in 2019, tried to continue, but had to be replaced by Daphne van Domselaar halfway through the first half. Nouwen suffered a leg injury in the final phase of the first half. Marisa Olislagers came in to finish the match.
Sweden opened the scoring in the 35th minute. The ball was played through Nouwens to the left by Kosovar Asllani, after which Jonna Andersson shot the ball into goal at the far post.
Despite the Oranje being one goal behind at the break, the Netherlands showed resilience in the second half. After 52 minutes of play, the free-spirited Roord decided to go for goal as he struck the ball from the corner of the pitch. Her blow to the ball hit the target.
“It was a bit unpredictable and it was a bit lucky, but it went in,” Roord told NOS.
Miedema played a significant role in the rest of the match. The striker found himself open with space to fire a shot over the crossbar, and then a later outside goal after more than an hour of play. Roord also seemed to have another good chance after a deep ball in by Jackie Groenen to Miedema, but Roord could not get a shot.
Sweden also had their moments in the final stages of the match. Van Domselaar stepped up to save a shot by Fridolina Rolfö.
“I’m proud of the team,” Miedema told NOS, praising her team’s ability to come from behind and secure a draw. “Sweden is a good team. The fact that you can still take a point here is good in my opinion. Now we have to focus on Wednesday’s match against Portugal.”
Miedema was not surprised by the team’s fighting spirit. “I think we have shown it in previous tournaments. We can still find some extra energy together. I think we can be very proud after this match. I hope Sari and Aniek get a good result in the hospital. They are two girls who actually always play. “
“Unfortunately I do not have an update yet. Sari and Aniek are not back with the team yet,” said national coach Mark Parsons after the draw. “Hopefully we will find out more tomorrow.”
“We remained calm after the setbacks in the first half,” said Parsons. “We have shown resilience. It was good to see. And as we have often said in recent weeks: we must grow in the tournament. This is therefore an important step for us. We know we can play even better football than we have done. to date.”
In the second Group C match, Portugal and Switzerland played a 2-2 draw earlier on Saturday. The Netherlands continue the European Championships in Leigh, England on Wednesday. They face Portugal in that match.
Orange’s fighting spirit made Roord “very proud”. “We can definitely build on that. We have to win the next two games and hopefully we will be in first place.”
Two million canceled for the first match
The first match with Oranje Leeuwinnen was watched by almost two million people on Saturday night, according to the viewing service Stichting Kijkonderzoek (SKO). That sum approached the figure from the first match that the women paid during the last European Championship, which was held in the Netherlands in 2017.
During that match, the Dutch squad defeated Norway’s women’s national team. The most watched European Championship 2017 broadcast was a tribute special to the Dutch women, which was watched by 5.4 million people.
The women’s match was the most watched program on television on Saturday night. For the most part, sports and current affairs programs dominated the top ten. The news broadcast NOS Journaal from 20.00 attracted 1.5 million viewers (second place), followed by De Avondetappe (1 million viewers), NOS Journaal from 18.00 (860,000 viewers) and 19.30 the RTL Nieuws broadcast (840,000 viewers).